Turbomachines such as wind turbines, gas turbines, steam turbines, pumps, fans, generators, motors, and other forms of commercial equipment frequently include shafts, blades, and other rotating components. It is known in the art to install one or more sensors on the rotating components to measure various characteristics of those components in order to control, monitor, and/or enhance the operation of the rotating components. For example, sensors that measure temperature, velocity, stress, strain, vibrations, and/or other characteristics of the rotating components may allow for early detection of abnormalities, adjustments to repair or maintenance schedules, and/or other actions to enhance operations.
The sensors may be electronically coupled to a controller or data processing device via one or more wire bundles which extend through an inner passage defined within the rotor shaft. The wire bundles rotate with the rotor shaft during operation of the turbomachine. Various slip ring and telemetry systems are known in the art for transmitting the sensor data from the rotating components to stator components for further analysis. In many cases, the number of sensors and corresponding wires may number in the hundreds or thousands.
Conventionally, the multitude of wires in the wire bundle(s) are manually fixed or connected to a single or common printed circuit board commonly known as a tack board. Although this configuration and connection method has high reliability, it can be tedious, non-serviceable, and non-repairable, can be difficult to mate to other components and typically limits the number of sensors which may be used. In addition, the wire bundle(s) are generally subjected to g-loads which may impact the integrity of the connections and or the individual wires within the wire bundle(s). Therefore, an improved method for routing the wires out of the rotor shaft for connection to the controller, data processor or the like would be useful.